New home, new name for Ottawa Folk Festival: Cityfolk @ Lansdowne

The 2015 edition of the Ottawa Folk Festival will have a slick new name and an urban home to mark the start of its third decade of existence. CityFolk will take place at Lansdowne Park from Sept. 17-20.

The move to the newly revamped Bank Street landmark comes after four years of butting heads with Mother Nature at the lush, green Hog's Back Park site. Though spacious and picturesque, the National Capital Commission park was never designed for large events, noted festival director Mark Monahan in an interview.

"It really is a difficult site to manage when you have any kind of precipitation," Monahan said, recalling the muck that developed at Hog's Back when it rained. "There's no water or power or service roads. Just basic servicing of toilets and vendors is extremely difficult. It is a beautiful location but problematic in many ways for a larger event."

At the Lansdowne Park site, the CityFolk main stage will be located on the Great Lawn, the expanse of green space next to the TD Place football stadium. The festival will also make use of the Aberdeen Pavilion, the Horticulture Building and likely some of the other public spaces, but not the stadium. No big jump in attendance is expected; capacity of the new site is estimated at about 15,000 people.

Of course, moving the festival to the heart of the city may spark a flurry of noise complaints from nearby residents, especially considering the fest was charged this year after complaints during the opening-night concert by Foster the People. To deal with the issue in the new site, organizers say they will be mindful of the direction the main stage faces, and are considering the idea of presenting concerts earlier in the evening so the music is finished by 10 p.m. Monahan said he hopes to further discuss the city's noise bylaw with Capital ward Coun. David Chernushenko in the new year.

Last fall Monahan said he believed the music being complained about was within the 65-decibel level mandated by noise bylaws. He also said that he worked with musicians to ensure that they play below the limit.

Chernushenko said, at the time: "It shouldn't have to come to this. They should be taking the initiative. The onus should be on them to make those measurements and to guarantee themselves. You know someone who's meeting the fire code doesn't wait until there's a fire."

For organizers, the primary advantage of holding the festival at Lansdowne is the built-in infrastructure, including water service, electricity and service roads. It's also easy to get to, and everyone in Ottawa knows where it is.

"No matter what we said about (nearby Hog's Back landmarks) Mooney's Bay or Canada Post, people didn't know what bus to take," Monahan said. "We got that a lot in our surveys. People know how to get to Lansdowne."

It's the second time Monahan and his team have moved the folk festival since taking it over in 2010. Founded by a group of volunteers in 1994, the inaugural folkfest was staged at Victoria Island. For the next 17 years, it took place at Britannia Park, where it grew into a family-friendly, musically adventurous weekend festival.

But a couple of years of bad weather left the festival almost $200,000 in debt. Monahan, who's also the artistic and executive director of Ottawa's biggest summer music festival, Bluesfest, stepped in to bail out the folk festival in 2010. He and the Bluesfest team took over the folk operation, giving it a major overhaul by moving to the bigger Hog's Back site and boosting the talent budget in order to attract a fresh audience.

The strategy worked. The folk festival has been able to maintain its reputation as a well-priced event that welcomes families, while the programming encompasses more styles of music and plenty of current acts. This year's event, which was held Sept. 10-14, featured memorable performances by pop starlet Lorde, electro rockers Foster the People, veteran bluesman Seasick Steve and the award-winning Canadian roots combo, Strumbellas, to name a few.

Attendance has grown to about 50,000 people over a long weekend, and the crowd is getting younger, with most attendees in their 30s.

Monahan says the name change reflects the evolution of the festival. "It's a new audience coming to this event, and the age has dramatically lowered," he said. "We wanted to keep the folk name but give it a twist."

If you don’t find the information you need on these pages, please visit ottawa.ca/newlansdowne, or to contact the City directly by email at newlansdowne@ottawa.caor by calling 3-1-1 (press 1 for English, then 5 for the Lansdowne line). If necessary, you may also contact the project manager, Marco Manconi, at 613-580-2424 ext. 43229, or by email.